It's the worst of imaginable tragedies compounded: Sonny learned that the child he never knew was dying, then unexpectedly experienced the death of his newborn baby. As hard as it was to watch, it must have been oh-so-much harder to write. The scribes had Alexis ask Sam to potentially sacrifice her unborn daughter for a stem-cell transplant. The story was risky in that it could have made Alexis, a fan favorite, seem callous and cruel. Sonny was put in a position of essentially having to choose which daughter was more important to him, and Carly picked the eleventh hour to reveal Kristina's paternity, which torpedoed her marriage. The life-and-death scenario provided thought-provoking moral issues, excruciating heartbreak and far-reaching consequences, which, of course, are what good soaps are all about.